Terms and Policies

Privacy Policy

Introduction

Ignite Online Pty Ltd (ACN 608 432 346) trading as BestSchools (“we,” “us,” “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you use our website and services. By accessing or using BestSchools, you agree to this Privacy Policy.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Personal Information

We may collect personal information that you provide directly to us, including:

• Contact Information: Your name, email address, phone number, and school affiliation.
• Lead Information: Details provided by parents, including contact information and preferences.
• Payment Information: If you purchase our paid services, we collect your payment details through our secure payment processing system.
• School AI Conversations: Questions and responses saved when school administrators use BestSchools AI, which may be used by authorised personnel for support, quality assurance, staff training and service improvement.
• School Photo Information: Photographs that authorised school administrators choose to submit to AI Photo, which may include images of students and other people.

1.2 First-party usage analytics

When first-party Market Pulse analytics are enabled, BestSchools records privacy-protected interactions with school discovery features. These may include school profile views, search result appearances and selections, viewable Featured School and Similar Schools placements, placement and banner selections, comparison and shortlist activity, the category of a contact action, event and tour activity, and returns to school analytics reports.

These events use:

• A random, first-party browser identifier retained for up to three calendar months.
• A random journey identifier retained in the browser for up to 30 days and a shorter session identifier.
• A one-way monthly grouping derived from the network address to enforce abuse and privacy thresholds. The raw network address is not stored in the analytics event.
• Your BestSchools account identifier when you are signed in, so parent demand can be distinguished from school and platform staff activity.

Market Pulse analytics do not include the content of contact details or free-text search terms. Similar Schools events may identify the source school profile and the school card shown so that placement performance can be aggregated. We use the events to create aggregated monthly insights for schools, such as profile engagement, comparison activity, search visibility and paid or recommended placement performance. Source and competitive school names are only shown after minimum visitor and network-group thresholds are met; individual visitors are not shown to schools.

Turning Market Pulse analytics off does not stop information and operational records that you deliberately submit in an enquiry, tour request, event booking or gated school-resource download. We continue to process those records to fulfil your request, communicate with the relevant school and operate the service. They may contribute to aggregated service and admissions-outcome reporting.

1.3 Australian Privacy Principles

We comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. This means:

• We collect and handle your personal information in accordance with Australian law
• We maintain appropriate security measures as required by Australian regulations
• We provide mechanisms for accessing and correcting your personal information
• We handle privacy complaints in accordance with Australian Privacy Principles

1.4 Data Storage and Transfer

Your data is primarily stored in Australia. However, some of our service providers process information on servers located outside Australia. In particular, when an authorised school administrator uses AI Photo, the submitted photographs are disclosed to OpenAI, which processes them in the United States. That disclosure happens only at the school's request, relies on the school confirming it has the authority and any consents required for the photographs, and is limited to providing the requested edit.

Overseas recipients may not be bound by the Australian Privacy Principles and may be subject to different privacy laws. When we disclose information overseas we:

• Use providers whose contractual terms restrict use of the information to providing the service to us and prohibit use for their own purposes, such as model training
• Apply encryption in transit and the retention limits described in section 5
• Only disclose the minimum information needed to provide the requested feature

Other service providers, such as analytics and hosting providers, may also store limited information outside Australia as described in section 3.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide and Manage Services: Facilitate account creation, process transactions, and provide customer support.
• Improve Services: Analyse usage patterns to enhance the user experience and develop new features.
• Process School Photos: Detect and replace selected faces when an authorised school administrator requests an AI Photo edit.
• Communicate with You: Send updates, promotional materials, and other information that may be of interest to you.
• Legal Compliance: Ensure compliance with legal obligations and protect the rights and safety of our users and the public.

3. Sharing Your Information

We may share your information with:

• Schools: If you are a parent, your lead information may be shared with the schools you interact with through our platform.
• Service Providers: Third-party vendors that assist in operating our services, such as payment processors, analytics providers and OpenAI for requested AI Photo processing.
• Legal Obligations: If required by law, we may disclose your information to law enforcement or regulatory authorities.
• Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or part of our assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction.

4. Data Security

We implement reasonable security measures to protect your information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include encryption, access controls, and regular security audits.

5. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this policy or as required by law.

For AI Photo, BestSchools deletes source photographs after processing. Unused uploads are scheduled for deletion after the two-hour signed-upload window, and generated results after one hour. Photographs sent to OpenAI, and the edited images OpenAI returns, may be retained for up to 30 days in abuse-monitoring logs under OpenAI's default API data policy, or longer where OpenAI is required by law to retain them, unless different approved data controls apply. OpenAI does not use API data to train its models by default. See OpenAI's API data controls documentation and Business Terms for its current policy.

The first-party browser cookie used for Market Pulse analytics expires at a Melbourne calendar-month boundary no later than three calendar months after it is issued. The browser journey cookie expires after 30 days, and monthly network groupings rotate each calendar month. Expiry prevents future linkage through those browser cookies; identifier values already recorded in raw Market Pulse events remain part of the protected historical record. Those events, including consent-gated shortlist events, currently have no fixed time-based deletion period. We retain them for historical analysis, reporting integrity, incident investigation and future metric development, periodically review whether they remain necessary, and will destroy or de-identify information when it is no longer needed for a permitted purpose.

6. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access Your Information: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct Your Information: Request corrections to any inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Delete Your Information: Request deletion of your personal information, subject to certain legal obligations.
• Opt-Out: Opt-out of receiving marketing communications from us.

7. Cookies

BestSchools uses essential cookies for functions such as authentication and security. When enabled, first-party Market Pulse analytics also use the identifiers described in section 1.2. You can turn Market Pulse analytics off below without disabling essential site functions.

Your analytics preference is stored for up to 12 months. Turning analytics off stops new first-party Market Pulse events from this browser from being stored and removes active analytics identifiers where technically possible. It does not stop records needed to fulfil an enquiry, tour request, booking or gated school-resource download, and it does not remove previously created aggregate reports. You can also manage other browser storage through your browser settings.

8. Children's Privacy

While BestSchools provides resources for parents of children aged 4-18, the platform itself is not intended for use directly by children under the age of 13. Authorised school administrators may choose to submit school photographs that include students to AI Photo. We process those photographs only to provide the requested edit, require the school administrator to confirm their authority, restrict access to the school's workspace and apply the retention periods described in section 5.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on our website and updating the “Last updated” date at the top of this policy.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about these Terms, please contact us at:

Ignite Online Pty Ltd
ACN 608 432 346
Trading as: BestSchools
Contact: Contact Us page
Address: 54 Wellington St, Collingwood VIC 3066 Australia